rockhillmanor
On the Road
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Joined: 12/06/2003
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Well my trusty little electrical tester prompted a huge fairground to call out the electrician on a weekend. And boy was he one unhappy camper when he got there!
About 20 shore stations and each shore station has about 40 outlets in it. And the event was booked to use each and everyone of them. I got there early and plugged into my assigned shore station and my tester in the motorhome showed open ground. Went back to the box to move my plug to another outlet only to eventually find out that EVERY ONE of the outlets had an open ground.
To get to these shore stations all the MH's many had to run drop down adapters and hundreds of feet of extension cords IMHO it was an accident waiting to happen with no ground.
The electrician got all huffy and demanded to know; "who said there was an open ground" and '"just what kind of howky tester did this camper have"!! It was like a dual we both pulled out our testers and they were the same.
He had to unearth the all the compacted gravel and dig down around the whole shore station because the entire shore station was not grounded.
We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
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Dumptrucker
San Rafael, Ca.
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Joined: 09/13/2004
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Is that where the Prevost with pig thief was?
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2oldman
Indio CA
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Joined: 04/15/2001
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Good for you.. ah.. electricians love their work.
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corglet
Colorful Colorado
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Joined: 07/16/2008
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Double good for you, and you saved a lot of fellow rv'ers from some big potential damage!
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nithriver
Wellesley, Ontario, Canada
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Joined: 03/24/2007
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You may have saved a life. A good practice to confirm your shore power is safe on every new hook-up.
Peter
Jayco Jay Feather 21J
2007 Ford F150, 5.4L, Reese Dual Cam WDH, Prodigy Brake Control, Honda EU2000i
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Chuck&Gail
In the Colorado Mountains
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Joined: 06/16/2004
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Good for you, glad you checked. Too many folks do not bother. Open ground CAN KILL!
We always check before we plug in. We've found a few miswires over the years also. Each time we did, CG thanked us a lot, and got it fixed.
Chuck
Wonderful Wife
Lovely German Shepherd.
1999 Mercedes ML320 TV
2003 Wanderer 187TB Toybox (3620# UVW, 4800# loaded)
Not yet camped in Hawaii, 2 Canada Provinces, & 2 Territories.
I can't be lost because I don't care where this lovely road is going
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lots2seeinmyrv
Oregon Coast
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Joined: 09/05/2004
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Can someone post a picture of what they use to test a 30AMP power pedestal so we know what equipment to buy?
Thank you.
2004 Chevy Silverado LS 2500HD 4WD 3.73 Duramax Diesel Ext Cab
2005 Keystone Sprinter 259RBS GVWR 7640
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b_salgado
Salisbury ,NC,USA
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Joined: 07/20/2004
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lots2seeinmyrv wrote:Can someone post a picture of what they use to test a 30AMP power pedestal so we know what equipment to buy?
Thank you. I use a 30A to 20A adapter. I then plug my polarity tester into that. It has saved me quite a few times also.
04 Lariat Supercrew 4x4,5.4,3.73, Edge tuner, flowmaster duals
06 Trail Bay 31BH, nicely optioned
Equal-i-zer
Prodigy
Follow vehicle, 05 KIA Sorento EX for the golden retrievers.
 (133 x 100).jpg)
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K3WE
Missouri
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Joined: 05/24/2005
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There wasn't a whole lot of grounding well into the 1960's.
Sure, it's an important safety backup if something ELSE goes wrong, but it serves no purpose with properly working electrical hookups.
I will side with the OP on the electrician- it ain't too high powered rocket science to check whether grounding and "polarity" is right or wrong! Howkey testers???...if the lights are showing I'll wager a beer on it!!!!
No harm in calling foul, but the world lived without designated independent ground for a long time, and power tools even evolved to operate without it.
* This post was
edited 07/31/09 09:02pm by an administrator/moderator *
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jomasw
Paris, Tn.
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Joined: 08/08/2004
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I was at a Samboree in Mass. several years ago and had my shore power cord out to plug it up when everything was good. When the contractor started up the generator some well-meaning RV'er hooked up my cord and blew my converter, refrig. TV and totally demolished the camper behind me. I believe it was wrong polarity/and or ground. They did fix the damage. I would have checked it if I had been there.
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